The latest addition to Agate Surrey's beloved 1,001 series of cookbooks is its hottest ever. This beautifully repackaged and refreshed second edition of 1,001 Best Hot and Spicy Recipes is, in the words of author Dave DeWitt—noted authority on hot peppers and spicy foods—"the largest and most comprehensive cookbook ever published on this subject."
DeWitt should know—he's widely considered the country's principal authority on this topic. For the past three decades, DeWitt's devoted his life and career to chile peppers and fiery foods, and he publishes the huge Fiery Foods and Barbecue SuperSite (fiery-foods.com), which includes hundreds of articles and thousands of recipes. His personal library devoted to peppers and spicy cooking now resides in Special Collections at the New Mexico State University Library.
This new book is composed of the very best dishes from DeWitt's collection of chile pepper-laden recipes from around the world that he collected on his travels, from colleagues, and by researching authentic, obscure, and out-of-print cookbooks from all over the world that he collected for his library.
The book is loaded with a vast array of hot and spicy favorites, including a huge variety of soups, stews, chilis, and gumbos; a broad selection of barbecue dishes for the grill; and a lengthy list of meatless entrees and vegetable options. Included are not just hundreds of spicy main dishes from around the globe, but also a surprising array of zesty beverages, desserts, and breakfasts.
In some chapters in this book, the recipes are grouped by type of recipe; in the others, they are organized in the order of chile peppers' spread around the globe: South and Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, U.S.A., Europe, the Mediterranean and Middle East, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Asia and the Pacific. The book is truly the very best the world has to offer in terms of great spicy foods.
The New York Times calls this author "The Pope of Peppers" and TV viewers recognize Dave DeWitt as the ever-affable chile pepper expert and organizer of Albuquerque's huge annual National Fiery Foods and Barbecue Show. Dave is also the author of more than 40 food related books, including the best-selling "The Complete Chile Pepper Book," "The Southwest Table," and the forthcoming "Growing Medical Marijuana." National TV appearances include "American Journal," Cable News Network, "The Today Show," "Home with Gary Collins," "Scientific American Frontiers," "Smart Solutions," and "CBS Sunday Morning." He has also been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, American Way, Smithsonian, and approximately 200 newspapers across the country. Now, the world's authority on the Southwest's hottest food turns his attention to New Mexicos most compelling and legendary historical figures--the rag-tag group of Apache warriors led by an elderly gentleman set on avenging the death of Victorio--and those who pursued them, the officers and buffalo soldiers of the U.S. Army's Ninth Cavalry as told in Dave's novel "Avenging Victorio." The people, the story and the settings are real; DeWitt poured through endless documentation in the form of military records, old photos, newspaper clippings, letters and other correspondence to piece together the facts. Then, drawing on his background as a university professor of composition and literature-- plus his almost uncanny grasp and sensibility of Apache customs, traditions, rituals (and humor) -- DeWitt has woven a fast-paced and engaging saga. Click here for more information."
Really didn't read the whole thing. Just picked out necessary material for preparing certain meals. In that regard this makes a great reference book for those special occasions.
This is a very comprehensive cookbook full of all sorts of recipes containing chilli. We grow a lot of chillies each year in the greenhouse, and I am always looking for new recipes in which to use our produce. I began reading this book on Kindle and got to page 92 (out of 882) – and decided I needed a paper copy – there were just too many recipes already in the first section that I want to try and keep on hand. It was a purchase well worth making. So far, I have made six main courses and one sauce (a Harissa). All were good, the ‘Texas Gunpowder Stew’ (diced beef with pinto beans) was excellent. And there are so many more I want to try. This book will keep me busy for years. There are chapters on sauces, pastes, soups, salads, stews, barbeques, meat, seafood, vegetarian, vegetables and desserts … – what more can you need? Each recipe starts with a brief introduction and the specific place the recipe is from (i.e. a named Caribbean island, maybe even the town!), and if available, the person who introduced the author to the dish. The particular chillies used are named, but as I want to use up the chillies I have on hand, I do not always stick to the recipe, though try to match the heat and flavour where possible. There are no pictures in the book, which is understandable. With 1001 recipes, pictures would make the book far too large – it is a weighty tome already. So, why only four stars? The book has serious need of better editing. There are spelling mistakes, and other problems. For instance, the recipe ‘Barbecued Ribs, Texas-style’ (very good, by the way) is listed in the index under beef and in recipe introduction talks about Texas cattle, then lists Pork Spare ribs in the list of ingredients instead of Beef spare ribs. While I always appreciate both imperial and metric measures in a cookbook, this book (clearly American) had the main measures in Imperial, but then converted them EXACTLY into metric. For example, ¼ cup (59Ml) oil or 1 ¼ teaspoon (6.25Ml) salt. Even the most avid metric cook does not want the measures that exact, and outside a chemistry laboratory, probably does not have the ability to measure that finely – and does it matter? Also, it is ’ml’ not ‘Ml’. . On the Kindle, the index is not easy to use. So, I would definitely recommend this book to any chilli-head or adventurous cook – but do be aware of its flaws. If possible, buy a hard copy.